A plan to manage California’s water

“Boxer slams water bill rider backed by Feinstein” (Dec. 6) is an unfortunate attack on a bill that California desperately needs to ensure its water operations are based on good science and which help construct a new and different water infrastructure. We’re a state of 40 million people relying on a water system built when only 16 million people lived here — that’s not sustainable.

The water bill that Congress is now considering puts us on the right path. Yes, it includes short-term operations provisions to help run the water system more efficiently, but those provisions fully comply with all environmental laws (including the Endangered Species Act) and will expire after five years.

The bill also includes $558 million in desperately needed funding to improve our 50-year-old water infrastructure. That’s likely $558 million more than we’ll ever see under a Republican Congress backed by a Donald Trump administration.

This includes $43 million for programs to help protect fish, $30 million to jump-start a desalination program in the state, $100 million for water recycling and reuse projects and $335 million for water storage projects.

It has always been clear to me that to meet our water needs in the states, we have to be able to hold water in the wet years to use in the dry years.

This bill was not negotiated in secret. To the contrary, it’s very similar to a bill I introduced in February that was circulated publicly, received significant public input and about which the administration testified in a public hearing that it complied with environmental law.

Nothing in this bill violates the Endangered Species Act or biological opinions.

The bill includes a so-called savings clause — much of which was written by the President Obama administration — that prohibits federal agencies from taking any action that violates environmental law.

I truly believe that if we don’t act soon, we’ll not only miss out on another rainy season, we’ll also face a President Trump who this year said the drought doesn’t exist.